Cheilosia ( Cheilosia ) canicularis ( Panzer, 1801 )

Bot, Sander, Mengual, Ximo, Meutter, Frank Van de & Skevington, Jeffrey H., 2025, Review of the genus Cheilosia Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Syrphidae) from the Caucasus, with the description of 14 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 1023, pp. 1-181 : 37-38

Cheilosia ( Cheilosia) canicularis ( Panzer, 1801)

Fig. 17

Syrphus canicularis Panzer, 1801: 20 .

Cheilosia canicularis – Radde 1899: 453. — Stackelberg & Richter 1968: 245. — Stackelberg 1970: 61. — Peck 1988: 99. — Barkalov 1993: 721. — Mengual et al. 2020: 15. — Żóralski 2022: 68.

Cheilosia canicularis Panzer, 1798 [sic] – Gujabidze 2002: 245.

Differential diagnosis

Cheilosia canicularis is a large Cheilosia ( 13–15 mm) that lacks setae on the posterior margin of the scutellum and has pilose eyes in the dorsal half, but only sparsely pilose or bare in the ventral half. This combination of characters can only be found in the morphologically very similar C. himantopus , and only relatively recently their identification and status was clarified ( Stuke & Claussen 2000). Cheilosia canicularis is a species flying in summer, while C. himantopus occurs in spring, with some overlap in June. Cheilosia canicularis has pile on arista about as long as diameter of arista (half as long as diameter of arista in C. himantopus ). In the male, usually (but not always) the fifth tarsomere is yellow (at least fifth tarsomere black in C. himantopus ) and there are subtle differences in the genitalia, see Stuke & Claussen (2000). In the female, posterior margin of tergum III with complete band of dense, adpressed pile (with sparse, incomplete band of adpressed pile in C. himantopus ) and posterior third of tergum IV with dense, adpressed pile (with scattered, semi-adpressed pile in C. himantopus ). For differences with C. orthotricha , see Differential diagnosis under that species.

Material examined

Collected in 2018, 2019 and 2021; see Mengual et al. (2020) for detailed records from 2018.

Genetics

We recovered a cluster (BS = 99.8%) with the barcodes of C. canicularis and the sequences of C. himantopus . Although some structure can be seen in the arrangement of the molecular data, both species cannot be distinguished with certainty from DNA barcodes.

Biology

During our expeditions, collected between 27 June and 9 September at an altitude between 790 and 2887 m a.s.l. on meadows and in forest clearings.

Distribution

Central Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus. Within the Caucasus known from Armenia, Georgia and Russia.